How Amazon turned its Thursday Night Football into a two-pronged pitch to capture ad dollars
TNF’s the jewel in Amazon’s Prime Video sports portfolio, and a lever for endemic and non-endemic media budgets.
As the NFL season and holiday shopping season begin, advertisers in the United States are allocating a larger portion of their budgets to Amazon's advertising offerings. For this e-commerce giant, Thursday Night Football coverage has emerged as a valuable tool in broadening its advertising and streaming businesses. The company has successfully utilized the TNF audience to attract brands that don't sell products on its e-commerce site, such as American Express, despite intense competition among demand-side platforms (DSPs).
However, Amazon has also positioned its live sports portfolio as an upsell option for brands that do sell products on its retail platform but have not previously invested in sports advertising, like Colgate. Colgate-Palmolive, which spent $1.51 billion on advertising in the first half of 2026 according to SEC filings, has not aired a Super Bowl ad in seven years and primarily focuses its sports marketing efforts on a Madison Square Garden sponsorship for Big East March Madness. Nevertheless, Colgate is fully committed to football on Amazon.
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